Today we’re talking about Coke Zero and gout. We hope to answer common questions such as can Coke Zero cause gout or gout attacks, and if so, why does it cause them?

First what main stream medical says about them.

Choi’s research has shown that study participants who consumed two or more servings of sugar- or fructose-sweetened soda each day had an 85 percent increased risk of developing gout, compared with participants who consumed less than one serving of sugary soda per month. Even sugary fruit juice, such as orange juice, raises the risk.

If diet soda is your vice, you may not have to worry as much about developing gout. “With diet soda, we did not find the association,” Choi says.

Basically what they are telling you is to stay away from sweet drinks. Let me be more specific.

Several studies have found an increased gout risk from sugar-sweetened drinks. This link has been found in both men and women.

One large study found that just one sugar-sweetened drink per day doubled a woman’s risk of developing gout compared with women who had less than one sugar-sweetened drink per month.

“Studies show that sugar-sweetened drinks and fruit juices are associated with an increased incidence of gout attacks. Interestingly, these studies show that diet soda intake is not related to increased frequency of gout attacks,” says Sloane.

It’s well established that sugar, and fructose in particular causes a know increase in the development of gout and increases the risk of gout attacks. This is not in dispute any longer.

Coke Zero has no real sweetners and there has been no increase in gout risk for people who consume softdrinks that use artifical sweetners. Regular softdrinks can’t make such claims.

I am a Dr. Pepper fan, always have been. I still drink it to this day, but choose to drink the diet version of it. I have Zero problems with it no matter how often I drink them. Believe me, I know exactly what makes my gout raise up it’s ugly head and start making waves in my life.

Most main stream medical tells us that gout is a lifestyle disease, no bones about it, but then make claims that meat causes gout, or an increase in purines in the bloodstream. This is indeed false.

I wrote an article arguing that sugar is the main culprit of gout in the majority of people who suffer from it. It’s titled: Does Meat or Sugar Cause Gout? The Truth May Surprise You. Here is a link to it.

There was a study several years back that suggested that gout was linked to diabetes. I believe both gout and diabetes have the same cause; Carbs, which are in reality sugars. Source.

The meat vs sugar article linked above will explain why my belief is it’s the same source for both gout and diabetes.

What if I suggested that insulin resistance is the main problem and that if gout sufferers would eliminate sugars and 90% of carbs, gout would go away for the most part in fairly short order for the vast majority of people who suffer from gout?

What If I told you that I’ve seen this in my life?

Maybe A New Way Of Thinking?

Maybe you should rethink your questions. Instead of attempting to blame food for purines, why not ask what is making the body produce so many purines? These foods didn’t bother you before gout, so what changed? Nothing but the onset of gout from what’s obvious. I would be willing to bet your diet was pretty consistent in whatever you choose to eat, and has been for quite a while.

Maybe Gout Is Not Caused By What You Think!

What’s the processes in the body that causes massive and sustained increases of purines in the blood stream and you will find your real answer, not propaganda to keep you on that monthly payment plan for drugs that most don’t need.

Want more proof? In the days of old Gout was considered and called “Kings Disease”. But back in days of old (Pre-oil era), sugar was not readily available and very expensive.

In the early 1800’s, the average American consumed between 4 and 9 lbs of sugar per year.

Now?

Some experts place it at around 200 lbs per year, per American.

That’s crazy!

Never before in human history has humanity had access to so many carbs and massive amounts of sugars.

You can chart the rise on diabetes and gout as sugar became cheaper and more easily accessible, just as you can obesity and most of the diseases we now hear about now, and especially what’s known as “Autoimmune disease”. I believe Gout falls into this broad and encompassing disease.

Drop the sugar and carbs, stick with meats, seafood, green veggies such as bloccoli, mustards and collard greens, kale, dairy and fats and you will most likely see a huge change for the better if you suffer from gout.

Enjoy your Coke Zero and other sugar free soft-drinks. They will not hurt you if you suffer from gout. Sugary soft-drinks are to be avoided at all cost.

Is Broccoli Good For Gout?

The short answer is yes, but there is a lot more to this story. So let’s get started on the story of broccoli and gout.

The “official” story is that it is good for you and in the spirit of debate, let’s see if we should even be judging or questioning broccoli in the first place.

It’s fairly low carb at only 10 grams per serving, and yes, carbs are an important topic when it come to gout from my perspective, but more on that later.

Broccoli does sport a nice list of minerals and nutrients, making it a very healthy choice as a food source. Here’s a quick breakdown.

1. Low fat. Almost no fat at just 0.1 g per serving. 2. It supplies just shy of 50 mg of natural sodium 3. It packs a punch with Potassium bringing 469 mg to the table 4. About 20% of your vitamin A is accounted for 5. 7% of your RDA of Calcium is covered 6. Vitamin C is at 220% of your RDA 7. 6% of your Iron is also included 8. 15% of vitamin B-6 is account for 9. 7% of your daily needs of Magnesium are met

Not a bad list as far as nutrition goes.

Gout is a lifestyle disease according to main stream medical and science. This means it’s 100% within your control for the majority of the population, with a small amount attributed to genes.

This, I agree with.

But, how does this list of vitamins/minerals that Broccoli sports make it different from hundreds and hundreds of other foods when it comes to gout?

It doesn’t. Period, end of story. One of the things that makes me mad as a cow grazing on astro-turf is people blaming foods that have no history of causing disease.

There were 10 bullet points above in the list, but there are 91 known nutrients, minerals and vitamins that are needed for life according to some, so call the count at somewhere between 39 and 91. This differs wildly throughout the medical/scientific community/peer review system.

You need a variety of of natural, real foods. 10 things from one food source does not make you healthy.

Yes, broccoli is good for you, even if you have gout. But, I don’t really think broccoli is good or bad for gout. Broccoli also isn’t going to trigger gout.

But, what does trigger gout attacks?

There is a lot of misinformation (actually, misleading information) on gout and the narrative is there to help sell drugs.

So, why has the main stream medical community failed to help people beat gout without drugs? They call it a “lifestyle” disease, so why the drugs first instead of working on the lifestyle? If they were more a bit more honest and if our medical system was not corrupted, the solution would be spread far and wide already.

Here’s what we do know. From a scientific perspective, meats and seafood do not have more purines than any other given food. In fact, according to this post, scientists have no way to measure the purines in any given food. It’s all a farce!

I’ve written an extensive and in-depth article on what I believe to be the truth about gout and the cause of it in the first place. It’s a meat vs sugar article on what really causes gout.

It’s a good read that will dispel some of the deceptions on this topic.

A big thing for those who are type 2 diabetic is sticking to a very specific type of diet, but exactly what type of diet should they be on? Everyone seems to have an opinion on this, so let’s break it down.

What Causes Type 2 Diabetes?

Type 2 diabetes has become more prevalent over the past 100 years due primarily to the mass availability of sugar and carbohydrates in the first world countries where it has become a massive health problem. Many would argue that it has a lot to do with genetics, but I would have to say it has more to do with environment than anything. Parents who are overweight and diabetic are more likely to have children who are overweight and diabetic for the same reasons that the parents became that way: too much sugar and carbohydrate intake.

The body doesn’t have to have beans, rice, potatoes, sugar, flour, bread, “whole grains”, etc in any form to be healthy. There is no such thing as an “essential” carbohydrate. Your body will produce carbohydrates and glucose on its own from the protein and fats that you eat, so anyone who tells you that you “need” whole grains has no idea what they’re talking about. They’re simply not needed.

What Types of Foods Should Diabetics Eat?

Diabetics should primarily eat meats and fats in order to reduce insulin spikes and, eventually, be able to reverse their insulin resistance.

Out of the 3 macronutrients that are available, fat produces the least amount of insulin response in the body. Protein produces some insulin response, but carbohydrates induce a massive amount of insulin production.

Insulin is the weight gain hormone. Without insulin being able to take the glucose that comes from the food that we eat and push it into the cells of our body, we don’t gain weight. This is why type 1 diabetics don’t gain weight; their bodies don’t produce enough insulin to do so. It makes sense to give a type 1 diabetic person insulin, because they actually need it.

Type 2 diabetics are producing too much insulin… so the solution for the type 2 diabetic is to reduce the amount of insulin that’s being produced and there are only a few ways to do this.

The Art of Insulin Resistance Reversal

The reversal of insulin resistance is well documented and very possible for anyone who has type 2 diabetes. It is not, as is the common myth, a progressive and chronic disease. It does NOT have to get worse. It can definitely get better with the right attitude towards diet.

Instead of eating a high carb breakfast, try a protein shake that’s low carb instead. Swhey, one of the best producers of high quality protein powder out there, makes a protein powder that’s organic, non-gmo, and has no filler content in it. This will help you feel full for a long time during the day.

Intermittent fasting can also help with insulin resistance reversal. The only way to “reset” insulin is to keep the amount that the body is producing low on a daily basis. A couple of days a week (or more if you can tolerate it, talk to your doctor), 14 to 18 hours a day without eating anything and the rest of the day getting in your full daily calorie intake should help. Intermittent fasting is what Dr. Jason Fung, a nephrologist from Canada, recommends for Type 2 diabetics. The less carbohydrates and sugars that you eat during the period that you can eat will help, as well.

Diabetes is a horrible disease that is based on too much or too little glucose in the blood. Too high or too low and serious trouble is knocking at the door. It’s killed millions, make many more blind or loss of organs due to the damage from high blood sugar.

Many within the medical profession state openly that blood sugar is not the problem, it’s just the symptom. The root of the issue is insulin resistance and it’s the #1 reason people gain or lose weight. Even the meds given for type II diabetes states on the insert that it causes weight gain. This means your goal as a diabetic is to never spike your insulin levels if possible.

Enter the low carb diet.

There have been many thousands of people who’ve reversed their diabetes by staying on an extremely strict low or no carb diet. Then you have intermittent fasting, which is becoming a popular way to lost fat, correct a host of health issues such as type II Diabetes. This is where protein powder comes in.

For the diabetic, having something that is both low carb (5 grams or less per serving) and low calorie is the holy grail of controlling and even reversing diabetes according to many experts. Protein powder may not be the crown of low carb, but it’s right up there sitting at the round table with other nobles. Fats and proteins are the two types of foods that most diabetics can eat without fear of spiking their insulin levels.

The good news is that most protein powders are low carb and sugars, and most of them can and will help you manage your diabetes if you are busy, on the go and don’t always have time for a full meal.

How do you know how much to take? It’s simple. Using protein shakes as a meal replacement or pick me up is something you can do daily, just use common sense. You can also use it as a supplement in your baking and cooking to take a meal that is low in protein to one with much more appealing numbers.

They even have special protein powders for women that are low carb, but are easier on the stomach and come from a variety of sources, both plant and dairy based proteins. Because of the plant nutrients, women even see clearer skin that is more soft, supple and less wrinkles. The best part, most of these products are actually made from real food. Whey, eggs and plants all play a part in the making of protein powders, and with custom blends, you can get very personal with your goals.

To put this plainly, choose the products you like best, don’t buy the rock bottom price brands and look at the carbs (5-6 grams per serving) and you should be fine as a diabetic.

Obviously, you already know some information on gout or you would not be reading this article, so let me be as brief as possible and clear some things up.

I’m going to give you a different perspective on gout and its causes and answer the question of where red beans are good or bad for gout.

Ready to dive in? Great, let’s get started.

Are Red Beans Really Bad For Gout?

First things first, let me deliver on the promise of the title and give you a direct answer to your question of are red beans good or bad for gout.

Red beans are not the best choice for people who suffer from gout. You will pay if you keep eating them. We will cover more details on red beans later. I first I want to teach you “why” red beans are not good for people who suffer from gout outbreaks.

You May Be Lacking Some Very Important Information

Mainstream medical states that gout is caused by an increase in purines in your blood serum levels, but what caused the purines to go out of control in the first place?

This is typical of modern medicine. Their goal is to manage a disease, condition or syndrome, not fix it, so the focus is on treatment.

Here is another example. There was a study just a few years back that suggested that gout causes type 2 diabetes.

They both have the same risk factors, and yet they attempt to point to gout as a cause instead of a symptom of something much bigger.

So, what’s causing both diabetes and gout?

The Real Culprits

Sugar and blood sugar problems to be exact.

Sugar and fructose, in particular, are the main culprits from my perspective and testing myself.

There have been quite a few studies come out over the last 150 plus years that directly implicates sugar.

If you still think purines are the cause of gout, you need a reality check. I have an article about what does not causes gout, and it’s backed up with a long history to suggest that gout is caused by sugar intake, not meats.

Just 200 years ago, the average American consumed between 4 and 9lbs of sugar per year per person, now in the US, that number is bumping 200 lbs of sugar per person, per year.

Carbs And Sugar Are Your Enemies

People are overweight, plain out obese and they still haven’t figured it out. Guess what red beans are loaded with? Carbs that turn to sugar in the blood.

If you want results, do the opposite of what Main Stream medicine preaches because their goal is to sell pharmaceutical drugs.

Sugar has literally thousands and thousands of peer-reviewed studies, trials, and test that directly implicate sugar in almost every disease, condition or syndrome commonly know to western society.

Why Don’t 2nd And 3rd World Countries Have Gout Problems?

Gout, until recently, has never been an issue in 2nd and 3rd world countries… but why not?

Sugar! Or, well, a lack of it.

50 years ago, gout was basically unheard of in Mexico, now it’s prominent with trade and super low sugar prices.

Cheap carb foods and sugar are indeed the cause of gout from my perspective.

Red beans have 110 grams of carbs or sugar in each cup. That’s the same amount of sugar as 3 – 16 oz coca-cola or the average soft drink.

Closing Thoughts

I would suggest you cut all sugars and as many carbs as you can and you will likely avoid future outbreaks if you learn to manage your diet correctly, I have and have helped many others who’ve taken my advice and tried it themselves.

I recently tried something new and will release that information very soon. This could squash gout and diabetes in their tracks.

Like my Facebook page for the earliest notifications on this new method to squash gout, and no, there are no e-books, nothing to buy, just pure information that you can easily apply in your life for relief.

Squash and Zucchini (both called courgettes) are great foods for gout overall, but one of them can provoke or aggravate your gout and could contribute to an attack in my opinion.

This article will seem odd compared to most that are posting about gout that have never had it themselves, but you will learn more here on my small site about some things most in main stream medical and the people who are their cheering squads are taught, but I personally have serious doubts about their perspective.

I fully believe that most (not all) gout sufferers can control their gout via diet and some simple management steps. I’ll give you some links at the bottom of this post that will further explain my positions, but be ready to hear things you’ll likely hear nowhere else.

The statement here are my opinions and what has worked for me and others like myself. There is science to back my views, but I am no doctor, not a scientist. Anything I tell you here is not to be taken as medical advice, just my story, experience and my beliefs.

I’ll explain.

I’ve tested a lot of foods over the last 6 plus years of being stricken with gout. Squash and Zucchini are no exception, but over all of the foods I’ve tested looking for one or any particular food that “triggered” gout was all for nothing.

It wasn’t a total loss. So let me share with you not only which black-sheep in the squash family is a traitor to gout sufferers, but also which ones are best to keep in your diet to squash gout (pun intended :).

Summer squash, or yellow squash is very low in carbs, high in potassium, vitamin A, C, B-6, Iron and magnesium. This one is a go. Eat until you can’t eat anymore if you choose.

Zucchini and spaghetti squash are very similar and you can eat them at will, but now for the offender.

Butternut squash!

But why?

Butternut squash has 3 to 4 times the carbs (mostly from sugars) compared to it’s close cousins.

Think I am kidding? Go look it up and then look up the carbs once it’s baked. It almost doubles again because the sugars are caramelized when baked.

Why do I keep hyping on carbs and sugar?

Because I believe almost all gout sufferers are also either pre-diabetic or diabetic.

Yes… but there are a few caveats you must consider, and we will get to that plus a lot more very soon.

But first, let’s look at what pumpkins have to offer for people who suffer from gout.

There are 28 of the 91 known essential vitamins and minerals in pumpkin. That is a fair amount when stacked up against almost any other produce. Pumpkin gives an array of power punches in vitamins such as vitamin A, beta carotene, C, E, K, plus many more.

In the mineral category pumpkin offers us calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, copper, zinc, as well as others.

High Fiber Content Helps Prevent Gout

Fiber slows down the digestion of other foods in your system, so eating high fiber foods around eating a sweet snack will help offset any purines created by the sugar in your snack food. Pumpkin seeds pack a big fiber punch at 1.7 grams of dietary fiber per ounce.

If you look at anything in nature, anytime you have fructose or sugars involved from a plant, it’s very fibrous. Fiber is natures way of curbing the insulin spikes that can ultimately lead to diabetes.

Here are some other benefits to having fiber in your diet.

Heart health: It’s been found that high fiber intake has been associated with a lower risk of heart disease, even up to 40%.

Weight loss and management: Because fiber makes you feel full, weight loss efforts are assisted and total weight lost is reduced.

Skin health: When your body can’t excrete bad things like yeast and fungus from your body fast enough, it pushes it through your skin, which causes acne and other skin disorders. Fiber such as psyllium husk can help the body excrete unwanted materials and help prevent excretion through the skin.

Diverticulitis: You can decrease your risk of diverticulitis by around 40% by increasing dietary fiber intake, particularly insoluble fiber.

Hemorrhoids: Including more fiber in your diet is also associated with a decreased risk of hemorrhoids.

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS): IBS is also positively affected by an increased intake of dietary fiber.

Gallstones and kidney stones: Because of fiber’s ability to help your body regulate blood sugar, it can decrease the risk of getting gall and kidney stones. Source : (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19335713)

And It's Low In Sugar Content... But Avoid Canned Pumpkin!

Canned pumpkin is no good in this case, because it’s already got sweeteners and other things in it. Skip it and go for the fresh stuff!

You have 3 grams of sugar in a cup of natural pumpkin, where cooked or raw, but in canned pumpkin over 8 grams for a single serving, which for it is a mere half cup.

So, half the food, vitamins, and minerals but twice the sugar. It’s no good, I say!

There is ample evidence suggesting that sugar, and fructose in particular are a major part of the gout puzzle.

You can read more about the research I’ve uncovered that suggest meats have nothing to do with gout and sugar has everything to do with gout, from onset through increasing attacks, frequency and intensity.

Pumpkin Seeds Have Tryptophan, Which Helps Produce Melatonin

Tryptophan is an essential amino acid, the amino acid that was once believed to make people want to nap after Thanksgiving dinner.

Although tryptophan does aid in melatonin production, science suggests that there is not enough in turkey alone to produce that Thanksgiving day nap. But, eating pumpkin seeds regularly can help your body produce the sleep hormone more easily.

A handful is the perfect dose given to humans via a healthy and natural diet.

And this means better sleep. Since lack of sleep creates stress and stress has been linked to gout outbreaks, pumpkin seeds are a great addition to a gout diet.

One Last Tip

There is a lot of misinformation on gout, the diets that help and other misinformation, even by the main stream medical establishment.

I can assure you that meats and low purine diets are hogwash. There is enough science to cause serious doubts about meats and high purine foods.

You will want to read my post about meats, sugar and gout. It may change your entire outlook on life as someone who suffers from gout.

So you now have gout and are attempting to sort what foods you can and can’t have, and here is where the surprise comes into play. No food is bad for you if it is in fact real food. What is bad is excess, validating the old adage of “All things in moderation”.

So let’s take a look at Nectarines as a food source for people who suffer from gout and see how it matches up for us.

Nectarines have 15 carbs, 11 of which are from sugars, fructose in particular. You should read my post addressing meat verses sugar concerning gout. It’s worth the time to read and you may be able to end your battle with gout in the time it takes to read that post.

Sugar is a major culprit in the onset of gout when you look at modern science from a reasonable perspective. Carbs are sugars, and sugar has been implicated as a food in health issues more than any other food on earth, and it’s killing people in the US at break neck speed. Gout is just one more of the responses your body has to overloads of sugar.

Nectarines have 11 grams of sugar. Eat 3 of these puppies and you might as well eat a chocolate candy bar or drink a 20 oz soft drink with HFCS (high fructose corn syrup). This is asking for a gout attack if done on a consistent basis.

Nectarines are fine in moderation, but you should hold your carb and sugar intake to 30 grams a day if you wish to remain gout attack free without prescription meds like I do now and have been for well over 4 years at the time of this post.

And yes, read the post linked above and listen to a gout sufferer who has literally crushed gout purely based on diet by eliminating as much sugar as possible.

Here is the cookbook I first used and still use to this day. Once you understand how to manage your diet, you can get creative.

Doctors Can't Tell You What They Don't Know

Most Doctors don’t know anything of the information I am about to share with you and the science behind it is as completely contrary to what doctors are taught.

In fact, after formal schooling, pharmaceutical sales reps are the ones who educate doctors on new drugs.

Maybe it’s time we take a fresh look at some old and new science that suggest that meats have little to anything to do with causing gout attacks. You have questions, and we have answers.

How does a disease manage to be misunderstood and nearly forgotten while still affecting millions of Americans each year? Gout does just that, right under our noses. For those affected by gout and the excruciating pain that comes with it, there is no way to forget it.

Gout has been around for centuries. In the time of castles and knights, it was called the “ailment of kings”. Then it only had an effect on the rich. The rest of the population could barely afford to eat, let alone eat to excess. Times have changed and people how wonder why gout is the rich man’s disease. Well, now even the poor are affected by gout in increasing numbers.

Now things are different. America is one of the heaviest countries in the world with Mexico moving just ahead of us. The rise in obesity in countries like Mexico is attributed to the increasing availability of sugary convenience foods. This may result in a rise in gout patients in the coming years.

Wait?! I thought gout was caused by eating too much fatty meat? Isn’t that what we’ve always known? As with other medical knowledge, our understanding is moving forward. We know more about what causes gout and how to treat it than we ever have. The hard truth is that over consumption of sugars is a major contributing factor in gout patients.

What Is Gout?

Let’s back it up a little and examine what’s going on here. First, what is gout?

Gout is a very specific kind of arthritis. In normal arthritis, joints swell up and cause discomfort. Gout is usually focused on a single joint, often the big toe. That joint fills up with sharp uric acid crystals. The joint responds by swelling up. The swollen joint is very tender to the touch, the pain often being described as a fire. Patients sometimes wake from their sleep, unable to stand even the gentle touch of their sheets.

Those with gout suffer because of too much uric acid in their blood stream. We all have some uric acid, and it doesn’t cause a problem for us. Gout patients have more than 6 or 7 mg/dl of uric acid in their blood. Uric acid levels have been recorded at and over 12 mg/dl.

The uric acid crystals that build up in a joint and cause gout pain can have other effects as well, including kidney stones and kidney damage. These high levels are found in over 20% of people in the US.

Uric acid occurs in your blood stream as a byproduct of the breakdown of purines. Purines are necessary and a vital building block for your cells. As with everything, there can be too much of a good thing.

For years, a low purine diet and medication has been the solution to gout. This is generally described as a diet with less meat and fewer high purine foods. High purine foods include more than just meat. They include meat products, yeast, beer and booze, beans, peas, oats, spinach, and mushrooms.

Low purine foods are said to include refined bread products like white bread, processed cereals, and pasta. Also included are sugary sweets, milk, eggs, butter, fruit, nuts, and carbonated drinks.

The sad part, scientist openly state that they have no way to accurately measure purines in any food. Makes you think… right? But we will get into this later.

Eating Junk Food Doesn't Help

Wow, sounds like you can eat a bunch of junk food and get rid of your gout right? This is not necessarily the case. Keep reading.

It’s also pretty old news that drinking a bunch of alcohol can bring on gout symptoms. Partying too hard is definitely off your schedule when you have gout. This isn’t your doctor being a spoil sport, and the science backs this up. Just a few drinks can push your uric acid levels up significantly.

Could It Be... Sugar?

Sometime in the late 1960’s, doctors figured out that fructose (sugar found in fruits) can raise your uric acid levels as well. Fruit, sugar, and corn syrup all have fructose in them. Just like beer, consuming these things can push your uric acid levels up in a real way. If you already have gout, your response to fructose will be more severe.

This is when doctors also noticed that poor people were getting gout more and more often. We thought this was a disease for the rich right? Sugar and sugary foods became cheap and readily available to the poor, changing the demographic that gout targeted.

Fructose Turns To Fat In The Body

This all sounds like a lot of conflicting information, but it’s really a simple shift in what we knew. We can now better explain things scientifically than just with anecdotal data. The simple explanation, scientifically, is that fructose is a sugar that turns to fat easily.

When your liver is busy doing that, it needs a lot of a compound called ATP. ATP converts to purines, lots of them. They are then converted into uric acid. Alcohol breaks down just the same way!

This gets worse. While the sugar is busy making sure your blood has uric acid, your body is releasing insulin. Insulin sends a message to the kidneys and get it to put uric acid right back into your blood. Insulin wants you to grow. To grow you need to make a bunch of cells. To make a bunch of cells, you need purines. It’s a simple chain reaction.

Purines are the building blocks of the human body and insulin is a building hormone that helps create them on top of fructose, which is converted in the liver. This is what causes fatty liver. This can lead to deadly consequences.

You Can't Cut Both Carbs AND Meat

So you have gout, and you’ve started that low purine diet, cutting out meat and booze. Now you’re eating a bunch of easily affordable cheap carbohydrates in place of all that meat you were eating. Then you find out the sugar contributes to your gout even more! Do you cut out carbohydrates and meats? How does that work nutritionally? Very simply, it doesn’t!

There are plenty of cultures that consume a ton of meat, but have no problems with gout. If you look historically, before crops were as reliable as they are now, vegetables were not guaranteed. This meant that meat was necessary in every diet.

While meat is high in purines, protein is the thing that helps lower purines. To an effect, meat can clean up after itself in your bloodstream. Meat cannot clean up after itself AND a bunch of sugar though.

Studies that were just paying attention to meat consumption did not take into account that people eating more meat were also eating more of everything else too. They did not measure carbohydrate intake at all. This is how science sometimes misses something.

But, Where's The Research?

Real, clinical studies for gout are almost non-existent, and there are none that deal with what we’re talking about. Studies we have began to focus on medication, and the best study that dealt with diet (in Brazil) did not use actual gout patients.

A teeny tiny study was done exploring gout and sugar. In 2009, a few men with gout were chosen in South Africa. These men were put on a 1600 calorie diet. Purines were not measured, and alcohol was allowed. The diet was 40% (not refined) carbohydrates, 30% protein, and 30% fat. Four servings of fish a week kept their protein a little lean. The study lasted 16 weeks.

Uric acid levels went down, on average, 18%. Seven men left the study with a normal uric acid level. Gout attacks were reduced by 72% and 17lbs were lost.

Because dietary changes were sweeping, it’s hard to know which changes affected the patients the most, which is why more widespread studies are needed.

What kind of meat did they eat while trying to stay away from unsaturated fats? What were their diets like before the study began? These are details that could help us.

Fructose Contributes To Gout More Than Alcohol

Another study done on gout confirms that sugar intake, especially fructose, can be a major contributing factor in gout symptoms.

In a study of 51,529 professional males, a study of dietary habits monitored the possibilities of what could cause gout in men from ages of 40 to 75 years old during the years of 1986 to 1998. Only 49,166 participants mailed in their evaluations the first year of the study.

These men were given evaluation sheets to turn in of what they ate and didn’t eat by marking pre-assigned amounts on the sheets. They were dentists, optometrists, veterinarians, osteopaths, and pharmacists.

The study also accounted for the effects on any exercise, medication, or medical conditions that the participants might have had prior to starting the study. This also studied any changes in the participants exercise, medication, or developments of medical conditions during the study.

Along with keeping up with the BMI in the participants over the years. During this study, there were 755 newly diagnosed cases of gout in the participants. Participants that reported having a diagnosis of gout on a previous evaluation forms were dropped from the study.

Only 2,773 participants reported having gout at the beginning of the evaluations. Out of these participants, 50 medical records were evaluated by medical professionals to see if they had 6 out of 11 indicators for gout. Then they were checked to see if the diagnosis was self diagnosed, diagnosed with a doctor, or reported with a tophus or crystal proved gout.

The evaluation sheets were tabulated every 4 years, to see the progress of the study’s participants. The participants in the study could miss one report or check in for the study one year for a follow up evaluation, and turn in the sheets during the next evaluation. There was a follow up rating of over 90% for the two year period.

The study came out that the urate, found in gout patients tended to raise in participants that had instances of high fructose consumption. Such as soft drinks and fruits with high sugar levels. Diet soft drinks did not have the same rates as soft drinks had evaluated with.

Surprisingly, alcohol or spirits weren’t as high in causing gout as fructose, with results being 35% and 49% for soft drinks with sugar and 15% for beer and spirits.

The study also evaluated the effects of dairy, alcohol, and BMI as risk factors for developing gout. These proved to have no significant impact on the study findings. Also measuring the effects of carbohydrates (non-Fructose) and protein in regards to the energy produced in junction with Vitamin C. Even with all these variables, the study proved that high intakes of fructose and soft drinks caused higher levels of urate crystals in the joints.

There are limitations to this study, even though it was the highest participant based study to this date, due to the fact that dietary intakes were reported by the participants data, though a sampling of the evaluations further confirmed the results.

Gout Is Associated With Metabolic Syndrome

Another study was conducted that confirmed Dr. Osler’s ideas. This study was done over a slightly longer period of time, but it echos some similar thoughts. It also was opened up to include women, something not done in previous studies.

The all had to take a food frequency questionnaire to validate their intake of beverages and fructose. During the 22 years, the follow up the nurses documented 778 confirmed cases of gout. The test results showed that, in women, the more sugary soda consumed, the higher the risk of gout is. Diet soda drinks were not corresponding to the study.

New evidence shows that gout is associated with the metabolic syndrome and may lead to a higher risk of heart attack), type 1 and 2 diabetes, and premature death. Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of conditions — increased blood pressure, a high blood sugar level, excess body fat around the waist and abnormal cholesterol levels — that occur together, increasing your risk of heart disease, stroke and diabetes.

Gout studies and treatments have been long focused on men, but there is new evidence that suggest that it is more commonly found in elderly women over 70 years of age. The confirmed gout cases are beginning to become more frequent in women.

Sugar sweetened beverages contain low levels of purine, the precursor of uric acid, however they contain large amounts of fructose, a carbohydrate known to increase uric acid levels. When the uric acid levels rise it causes frequent attacks of gout, or it may never cause problems. A high uric acid level may also cause some people to develop kidney stones or kidney failure.

In this study, ingesting fructose was found to cause a sharp increase in serum uric acid. The rapid increase was exaggerated in individuals with a history of gout. Also, in a different study it was found that animal experiments and two National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) studies have suggested that the enormity of urate raising effect of sugar sweetened sodas may be weaker among women than among men, extrapolation of data on this important risk factor for gout from men to women should be done with caution.

More Validation of the Sugar Connection

The Nurses’ Health Study (NHS) began in 1976 when 21,700 female RNs who were predominantly white and were 30 and 55 years of age living in 11 different states completed a mailed questionnaire in which they provided detailed information about their medical history, lifestyles, and other risk factors. Their information was updated every two years to try to help identify any other risks, and newly diagnosed diseases.

After the women completed the questionnaire, they excluded women with a previous diagnosis of gout before 1984 or the participants who did not complete more than 10 items on the 1984 dietary questionnaire, leaving 78,906 women who were followed from 1984 to 2006.

The Partners Healthcare System institutional review board approved the study. The review board accepted a return of the completed questionnaire as implied informed consent.

The questionnaire consisted of average use of foods and beverages during the previous year, including sodas, juice, and the food that the participants ate. The NHS based their study on the average of products consumed from the questionnaire.

The Connection With Soda & Juice

The nutrient intakes were computed by multiplying the responses by the nutrient content of the specified portion sizes. The values for nutrients were derived from the US Department of Agriculture, and supplemented with information from manufacturers of the products consumed.

Half of the disaccharide sucrose is fructose, which is split from sucrose in the small intestine. So, total fructose intake is equal to the intake of free fructose plus half the intake of sucrose. Knowing this, the relationship between the questionnaire and multiple dietary records showed that the most consumed drinks were soft drinks and fruit juices.

After every two years, the participants provided information on weight, regular use of medication, and medical conditions. This data has proven to be very helpful in the study, validating the study, and have the ability to predict risk of relevant future diseases.

The questionnaires asked the participants had received a physician diagnosis of gout and, if so, the date of first occurrence. In 2001, NHS sent out a questionnaire to the participants with self diagnosed gout, and asked them to go to their physician and get a confirmed diagnosis.

The end point of the study was an occurrence case of gout in which 6 or more of 11 gout criteria were met. The gout criteria are as follows: more than one attack of acute arthritis; maximum inflammation developed within one day; oligoarthritis attack (arthritis affecting one to four joints during the first six months of disease) redness observed over joints; painful or swollen fingers, toes, or joints; tophus (a deposit of crystalline uric acid and other substances at the surface of joints or in skin or cartilage); hyperuricemia (an abnormally high level of uric acid in the blood); asymmetric swelling within a joint; complete termination of an attack.

The overall rate for gout questionnaire was 81%, which was a similar result to the Health Professionals Follow up Study. In this study two Board certified rheumatologists reviewed the medical records from 56 women in 2001. The similarities between the diagnosis of gout and the review of the relevant medical records was 91% (51/56).

Diet Sodas Don't Seem To Affect Gout Risk

In the study they used Cox proportional hazards modeling (PROC PHREG) to estimate the relative risk (RR) for occurrences in gout. They put consumption of soda and juices into six categories: <1 per month, 1 per month to 1 per week, 2 to 4 per week, 5 to 6 per week, 1 per day and 2 or more per day. Fructose intake were categorized into quintiles for percentage of energy.

Soda and juice consumption were adjusted for the following variables: age (continuous), total energy intake (continuous), alcohol consumption, body mass index (kg), menopause status, use of hormonal replacement, use of diuretics (thiazide or furosemide), history of hypertension, coffee intake, and daily mean intake of meats, seafood, dairy foods, and total vitamin C (quintiles).

They did the same for fruit and non dietary products. (alcohol, etc.). During the 22 years of follow ups the found 778 new diagnosed cases of gout, 638 with podagra (gout of the foot, especially the big toe),576 with hyperuricemia (abnormally high level of uric acid in the blood), 342 with tarsal joint involvement, and 109 with tophus (deposit of crystalline uric acid and other substances at the surface of joints or in skin or cartilage).

In this large study of women, it was found that the risk of gout increased with increasing intake of sugar sweetened soda. However, diet soda intake does not have any risk of gout. The study shows that women who consume 1 serving of sugar sweetened soda have a 74% higher risk of getting gout than women who consume two servings of orange juice.

The study shows the risk of gout was significantly increased with increasing intake of fructose, the main suspected ingredient behind the increased risk. These findings were separate from risk factors for gout such as body mass index, age, hypertension, menopause, diuretic use, alcohol, and intake of dairy, meat, seafood, coffee, and vitamin C.

These findings were confirmed by the recent prospective study of men and provide the first evidence among women that fructose and fructose rich beverages are important risk factors to be considered in the prevention of gout.

Gout Among Women Occurs Largely After Menopause

While the risk for gout associated with the fructose rich beverages, absolute risk differences were modest given the low occurrence rate of gout among women. The risk differences were less than one case per 1,000 person years.

Previous animal experiments and NHANES studies suggest that the high quantity of urate raising effect of fructose or sugar sweetened sodas may be weaker among females than among males. An analysis based on NHANES III found that the increase in serum uric acid level associated with sugar sweetened soda intake was larger among men than women, although the association among women was still significant.

This was thought to be because of sex hormones due to study in rats that have shown that female sex hormones protect against the development of hyperinsulinemia (a condition in which there are excess levels of insulin circulating in the blood than expected relative to the level of glucose) associated with high fructose intake.

Nevertheless, as gout among women occurs mainly after menopause, when the female hormonal influence greatly declines, the gender difference of the fructose effect on the risk of gout may be less apparent than that on serum uric acid levels observed in the general population that included premenopausal women.

Fructose Causes Uric Acid Production

Fructose induces uric acid production by expanding ATP (a nucleotide that is composed of adenosine and three phosphate groups and releases energy when hydrolyzed to ADP) and deteriorating it into AMP. Fructose in the liver uses ATP, and the accompanying phosphate deterioration limits the regeneration of ATP from ADP (an ester of adenosine that is converted to ATP for the storage of energy) which serves as surface for the catabolic pathway to uric acid formation.

Therefore, within minutes after fructose infusion, plasma uric acid concentrations are increased. In opposition, glucose and other simple sugars do not have the same effect. Fructose could indirectly increase serum uric acid level and the risk of gout by increasing insulin resistance and circulating insulin levels.

They have dietary recommendations and restrictions on purine intake. Low purine diets are often high in carbohydrates including fructose rich foods. Their data stresses the importance of restricting fructose intake. Osler’s diets prescription as a means to prevent gout over 100 years ago, as reflected in his 1893 book supports this study.

Also, fructose intake is related to increased serum insulin levels, insulin resistance, and increased adiposity. The general negative health impact from fructose is larger in women with a history of gout, 70% of those women suffer from the metabolic syndrome.

There were a relatively large number of cases in the high fructose groups. The numbers in the top consumption categories of fructose rich beverage items were small. It was comforting that the next top categories also showed large positive associations with a dose response relationship. Biased recall of diet was avoided in this study because the intake data was collected before the diagnosis of gout.

Gout Risk Is Higher For African Americans

The use of repeated dietary assessments in the study not only accounts for changes in dietary consumption over time but also lowers measurement error.

The restriction of RNs in the study is both a limitation and a strength. The study of well educated women reduces the potential for surprises associated with socioeconomic status, and they were able to obtain high quality data with minimal loss to the follow ups.

In conclusion, their findings provided the prospective verification that intake of sugar sweetened sodas, orange juice, fruit juice, and other fructose is associated with an expanded risk of gout among the participated women.

Their contribution to the study and risk of gout in the population is likely humble giving the low occurrence rate among these women. However, diet soda consumption was not associated with this study or the risk of gout.

Physicians should acknowledge of the significant impact of these sugar sweetened sodas and fruit juices on the risk of gout which is a common and excruciatingly painful arthritis.

We Were Never Meant to Eat This Much Sugar

So how does all of this affect you, a member of normal society living long past the age of kings? Well, lay off the booze. It is consistently a problem for gout across the board, so it’s an easy change to make. Even a few beers can throw you way off track, so exercise some self discipline.

Research doesn’t know it all yet. We look very hard to doctors and science for our cures, but when their information is incomplete, we can take some steps on our own and see what works for us as individuals.

First, this means knowing your diet. Record what you eat, and record when you get your gout attacks. You might find a pattern there. Self awareness is the first barrier of defense we have against something wrong medically.

We don’t know why some things happen, even when we know that they do happen. We don’t know why only some people with high uric acid levels end up with gout. Saying that we don’t know might seem scary. It’s hard to not know something in an age where there’s an answer for everything, but science continues to push forward. This means that we have to get up and help ourselves where we can.

Take the science that you know and add in some of your basic common sense. If you have a bad diet, you will suffer the consequences of a bad diet. Purines come in our natural food and are produced in our bodies.

Cut The Carbs & Check Your Blood Sugar

While you’re making a record of your diet and your gout attacks, record other medical data too. Knowing your blood sugar is a good thing, and meters are readily available. Sometimes meters are even free, and your doctor is unlikely to object to this. Doctors want you to be as aware medically as you can be so that you can take responsibility for your health.

Cut out refined sugars like white bread, sugar cereals, table sugar, sodas, candy, and junk food. Then wait and see what happens, recording the results. Do your gout attacks decrease? How do your blood sugar levels fare? Remember to follow the rules you set for yourself. You are acting as your own scientist, and deviating from your plan will alter your results. Consistency is the path to change.

If nothing else, your doctor will be thrilled as your health gets better overall. There are other small things you can do too. Taking Vitamin C has been shown to reduce uric acid just a little, so pop 500mg a day of it.

Make sure you replace those refined carbs with some good stuff. Whole grains and yummy vegetables will fill your meals back out. Cauliflower is amazing, and people are learning to use it in place of potatoes in all kinds of dishes. It can be steamed and turned into a substitute for rice too! In a food processor with a bit of butter and some plain yogurt, it turns into a substitute for mashed potatoes that’s as good as the real thing.

Don’t take your produce section for granted, and don’t just use your computer for games. Recipes low in refined carbohydrates are easily found online, leaving you with very few excuses not to change your health for the better, staving off a painful disease in the process.

Gout was once an ailment only felt by royalty. It now effects millions of people worldwide, and our knowledge is expanding on the subject.

Diet Is The Ultimate Solution

It’s becoming clear that the solution for many of our illnesses begins with our diet. Don’t eat blindly. Instead, take into account what you are eating and what went into making your meal.

To be effective you need to understand more about diet and have some good recipes or you will fail.

The good news? I already failed enough for all of us and have been gout attack free for over 5 years.

I figured you may want to know how I stopped my extremely vicious battle with gout.

Here are my guides (cookbooks) below that help me eat right for someone who suffers from gout. It cuts carbs (sugars) and my gout just magically disappeared.

You only need to pick one to get started, but having more gives you more variety.

Alcohol is bad for gout. It’s so bad that it may be a major contributing factor to the onset of gout.

Alcohol dehydrates you and therefore your kidneys, which are responsible for eliminating purines from the body. Then there are fast carbs which spikes insulin. As far as the effect on insulin, beer spikes insulin at a very similar rate to modern soft-drinks.

It’s been known since the 1960’s that sugar intake increases purines within the body. You are taking a 1-2 punch right to the toe (or wherever your gout flares) each and every time you take a drink of any alcohol.

Here comes the uppercut for the knockout. Beer, and most alcoholic drinks are packed with purines… or so they say. We’re going to debunk that shortly from the mouths of scientist themselves.

Granted, some are supposedly worse than others, but no version is good, or even neutral, it is bad for people who have gout and there are no exceptions to this statement.

Common Causes of Gout

Hyperuricemia or high levels of uric acid in the blood is the most common cause of gout. This can be diet related or genetic. It can also be caused by one of the two reasons mentioned below :

Increased production of uric acid, such as hemolytic anemia, leukemia, excessive exercise or psoriasis

The question most never ask is why these levels become too high or too low in the first place.

I asked these questions that professionals like doctors and scientist never seem to ask. Mine was more specific to gout, so mine is what is causing high levels of purines and uric acid in the first place.

We will cover this question in my final thoughts at the bottom of this page.

What Kind of Foods Trigger A Gout Attack?

There are many beverages and foods that cause high levels of uric acid in the bloodstream.

Some of the most common ones include excessive amounts of alcohol, especially strong beer and red wine, asparagus, soft drinks, coffee, anchovies, legumes, mushrooms, and meats, especially shellfish and organ meats according to main stream medicine.

The fact is scientist have admitted for years that they can’t accurately measure the purines in foods. Here is what the leadership of one such study had to say about foods increasing purine levels in the human body.

The purine content of the diet does not usually contribute more than 1 mg/dl to the serum urate concentration… [Emmerson 1996].

We will revisit this later.

Gout can also be caused by other things. Some of these include injury, surgery, stress, rapid weight loss, deficiency of Vitamin B5, use of antibiotics, chemotherapy, and deficiency of several nutrients. Any major cause of potassium loss, such as fasting, diuretic use, and surgery can also trigger gout.

Effects of Alcohol

A lot of men who indulge in alcohol, especially beer, can double their risk of developing gout. Researchers have known about the link between gout and alcohol for many years through anecdotal evidence. Recent studies have been able to verify this connection.

It is important to understand that gout is a kind of severe arthritis, marked by severe inflammation and pain in the joints. Moreover, gout outbreaks strike suddenly, without any prior warning. Some severe instances of gout may lead to major health problems, and even kidney failure. Men are more prone to developing gout than women. However, this difference is less dramatic among elderly people.

According to researchers, both environmental and hereditary factors can cause gout. Alcohol consumption is one of the major causes of gout. In the past 30 years, many studies have reported that regular alcohol consumption increases the likelihood of suffering from gout.

Many patients report the link between gout and alcohol consumption. You can get gout attacks triggered by purines. A lot of patients report suffering from gout attacks either on the night of alcohol consumption or after a couple of days from having drinks. In such cases, even medications don’t help treat the problem. Therefore, it is important to drastically reduce your intake of alcohol.

According to studies, strong beer and wine are more likely to cause a gout outbreak than other kinds of alcoholic drinks. As mentioned earlier, many studies have verified these claims. In this post, we’ve also discussed a study that establishes the link between gout attacks and consumption of alcohol.

Study Findings

According to a study published in the renowned Lancet Medical Journal, researchers studied a sample of 47,000 male medical professionals. They did not have a history of gout outbreaks for about 12 years. By the end of this study, more than 2% men had experienced gout attacks. Men who consumed alcohol on a daily basis had twice the risk of suffering from this condition than men who didn’t consume alcohol regularly.

Drinking beer increased the risk of gout attacks by almost 50% for every serving on a daily basis. On the other hand, men who drank hard liquor increased the risk of suffering from gout attacks by almost 15% for every drink. Men who consumed red wine didn’t experience increased risk in suffering from gout attacks. However, since only few men consumed more than 2 glasses of wine per day, these results are not conclusive, but provide some insight.

According to researchers, beer consumption can and does lead to gout attacks. The stated primary reason is the high purine content of alcoholic beverages. During the process of digestion, purine compound breaks down to create uric acid. Normally, urate or uric acid leaves your body through urine.

However, if your kidneys are not able to process high levels of uric acid, it creates a wide range of health problems. Excess uric acid in the body can form crystal deposits in your joints. These deposits are the primary cause of gout.

Some powerful medications are available in the market to treat gout, but come with some potentially dangerous side effects. But it makes real sense to reduce your risk of suffering from the condition in the first place. When you avoid regular or excessive consumption of alcohol, you’re able to lessen gout attacks and the length of their duration.

Final Thoughts

Besides avoiding alcohol, you can also take other steps to prevent and treat gout. For instance, meeting your daily recommended intake of potassium makes sure you’re able to take a bite out of gout, and improve your overall health.

These days, you can choose from a wide range of supplements to prevent gout. Most of these supplements also aim to prevent nutritional deficiencies to improve your health and well being. However, you should look for the best supplements to treat your problem. Make sure they are sugar free and actually contain what the merchant claims the product does.

I am not too big on single solutions because I believe that your total overall diet is the root of the problem.

There are foods that slightly increase and decrease purine levels in the body, but most are nominal in nature and the max any food increases or decreases purine levels is about 10% and it’s not organ meats, red meat, nor seafood that has the largest sway in purine levels.

Dairy, whole milk, cheese and such drops your purines by 10% in an hour and a half. A 16 ounce rib-eye steak does not raise your purines by 10%, neither does most shellfish.

What we need to find out is what is causing the spikes of purines, and I am betting it is more sugars than anything else.

The problem with this science as well as other gout studies is that they are not looking at the root cause as mentioned earlier in this post.

If you can eat a 16 ounce rib-eye and then drink a glass of whole milk with it, you have actually lowered your purines, not increase them, and this doesn’t account for the fact that protein lowers uric acid levels… so the steak cancels out the increase in purines all by itself. Adding milk should push you in the good direction.

This would apply to all meat, foul and fish.

Asparagus does not increase purines 3% total, so why is it considered a trigger?

If meats cause it, why do vegans suffer from gout? Yes, there are thousands and thousands of vegans that have gout and have attacks regularly, even with pharmaceuticals.

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Medical Disclaimer

All of the content on this website is based solely on my opinions after going through years of research and experimenting with foods and gout on myself. Nothing I state should be construed as medical advice. This blog is composed of my experiences, my testing, and my personal view on the topic of gout. I am no doctor, dietician, or scientist. I am an average middle aged American man with gout sharing my experiences and beliefs.

Talk to your doctor before you do anything I talk about, as you may be on medications or in a delicate medical situation that is not discussed here and needs special attention.